HR Rap Session: The Love of HR (1/3)

Welcome to the 4th edition of th HR Rap Session. If this is your 1st time reading CostofWork, the HR Rap Session is a series where I invite 3 HR leaders to write a little something about HR from their POV. This session’s participants are Jason Lauristen, Jessica Miller-Merrell and Steve Browne on the theme of “The Love of HR”.

Kicking it off is Jason Lauristen with “Let’s Get Started”

Most people spend more time working than any other activity in their lives except sleeping. When our work is good, it lifts up the rest of our lives. We are happy, fulfilled and proud of what we do. When work is bad, it can feel like the weight of the world is crushing us. It can make you question your worth and feel hopeless. What makes human resources such an awesome profession is that it holds the opportunity and potential to be the difference between a good and bad work experience for people.

And, when it comes to making work great for everyone, there’s a lot of work to do. Our organizations are largely stuck in a model of work that evolved nearly a century ago. The way value is created in in today’s economy demands a new model of work. It must be those of us in human resources that lead the design of this new work.

The opportunity is tremendous, and overwhelming. To succeed will mean studying business, technology and human behavior. It will mean thinking outside of the paradigms that have for so long defined the work of HR. We are going to have to break some things and take some risks. A new model of leadership is likely going to be required and we will have to model it first. Change is a necessity. It will feel scary to embark on this quest.

But we must. Too many people’s lives and happiness is depending on us. Human resources has never been more important than it is today. We’ve got a lot of work to do. Let’s get started.